End of the year Reflection

The last session of Prison Babies(6th of May, 2010) was canceled because the teacher from the prison who was supposed to bring the children got ill and couldn't come. It was really disappointing, since it was meant to be the LAST session of the year before going into the break. And, unfortunately, there's a little possibility that this was really the last session of all since they might be moving their prison to Kalutara. If it is, it'd be really sad we couldn't even say goodbye
:( HOPE NOT, hope we'll never have to say goodbye.

This year, we made a huge progress in helping Prison Babies. Since the head of the prison has changed to a very supportive guy, we could get the permission much easier to bring the children to our campus and even visit the prison for us; we could visit them only once last year, however, we went there more than once for sure this time !

We had a successful fundraise this year as well. Thanks to the Language B department who sold the tickets to raise the fund while we didn't even ask them for, and Mrs. Nicky Paull, who kindly gave donations, we could buy the basic needs and the bed mattresses for the children.
We brought the children to our school and tried to do a lot of new stuffs with them rather than just playing in the playground, so that they can learn more, experience more and enjoy more. We tried to watch the animation movie which was a completely new culture that they haven't seen, and we painted with water color or colored pen and pencils (and we found potential in them :P). We also went to McDonald with them and played at the McDonald playground which was another new environment.

We believe that children enjoyed the time this year with us as we did and hope to see them next year as well. We will organise more fun and exciting activities to do with them next time!

Prison Babies update!

UPDATE !

Last week, we were able to visit the prison again after so long! We had donations from Language B department at OSC and also Ms.Lilani's friend, Mrs.Nicky Paull, has donated money for the children in the prison and we could have bought the mattresses for them. So we went there to give them the mattresses. They seemed to be really happy and really like our gifts; especially, the children's mothers were extremely excited about having the new mattresses as they even came out to the front gate and carried the mattresses themselves not letting us helping them :P

We were allowed for the camera for the first time! and could take the pictures of us and the babies. We, indeed, had a lot of fun and I wish we can visit there more often have more time spent with them!

AH! mothers are excited ! :P

And this week, we called them over to our campus. We had them in the animation characters costumes and watched Tom and Jerry. They seemed to like the costumes a lot as well as Tom and Jerry. They looked so cute and adorable in those clothes and we took a lot of pictures of them. We, indeed, had a lot of fun together like ALWAYS :) I wish we can plan more interesting things to amuse them and play with them next week and do a lot of things with them!

Prison Babies update

I haven't updated what has happened in Prison Babies.
After the December break, we haven't had a single meeting with the children for three weeks due to a presidential election, WWW and so on.
Last week, we could have invited them to our campus and spent some times with them. However, many of them seemed to be scared in a strange environment with strange people; younger kids seemed that they don't recognize us.
In fact, this was not planned so well that we just sat in the classroom and played with the toys donated by the primary parents. We are planning to do something better this week; we are planning to play some Sri Lankan traditional children' game and watch Tom and Jerry. We hope they will enjoy what we have planned !

Another visit !

The Prison Babies came to our school again last Thursday. Unfortunately, only five of them came this time and also we couldn't do anything as none of us have got any plan for them. One of the children, Thail(hope I spelled his name correctly), gave us an inspiration saying that he wanted to play football with us. We went down to the primary field and played there. It was pretty fun and I believe the children enjoyed it.

We heard a good news and a sad news. Good news is that we had a new baby last week. She looked frightened a bit, but she seemed to be getting along with others pretty fast. A sad news is that the eldest girl's mom is discharged soon that today was the last day with her. It's certainly good for her, but we'll miss her a lot.

Anyway, we've only got two weeks from now on before the December break. We made Corien and Upanda come up with a plan for next week and we are planning to go to McDonald with them on the last day.

I(Young jun) didn't know that the language B department is fund raising for Prison Babies. I saw a poster of Prison Babies they made on the wall and heard that they are fund raising for us. It's really good to hear and I hope we can do more with the children or donate some basic needs and goods they may need.

Second Visit !

We visited the prison this week for the second time !
The plan, that we'd visit them once in two weeks, seemed to be working very well.
We went there and met the children. We brought some play dough, the paper and the scissors into the prison. (we were probably not allowed to, but the guards didn't realize it.)
We cut the paper and made the crown for them. We also made Halloween pumpkin with the play dough. We couldn't bring any sorts of electric appliances that we couldn't bring the camera and couldn't take the picture which is really sad.

It was raining that day and we thought we'd not be able to play with them at the playground in the prison. But they seemed that they REALLY REALLY REALLY want to play that held our hands tight bringing us outside.

The time past so fast that we thought it's only been a few minutes, but then we had to leave at one point. We said goodbye to them for that day and wished to see them next week as well.

Long Time No see!

After the one week-long summer break, we had the first meeting with the children this week.
Maybe because of the visit we had last time, more new children came this time. It's certainly a good thing that more mothers are opening their minds to send their children here.
We couldn't really plan anything for the children that we just played with them at the primary field. They seemed to be getting familiar with us more and more after each week we meet with them.

First Visit !

Last Thursday, we visited the prison for the first time this year as we planned. It has been changed pretty a lot.

We were not allowed to bring anything that we couldn't take any photos. It seemed that they have tightened the guard and security that they frisked our bodies which was different from the last visit from 2008.

The most significant change was that they have finished building the school for the children and many more new faces were there. Now they actually have a place to teach and play only for children. The new building looked good and clean which was reasonable for children to stay.

As we brought some coloring pictures and color pencils and pens, we painted with them again like last week. We wanted to plan something new, but we couldn't really bring anything into prison that the activities we could do was limited.

After painting, we came outside and played with them. Many of the children were new that they didn't really open their minds to us. We were not so familiar to each other that they were scared of us and cried only last time. Good thing about this visit was that many of them are actually opening their minds and smiled as we are getting familiar.

This visit was really meaningful and fun. We hope that we can visit them more often this year.